Background: In a recent clinical trial, dermatan sulfate was found to be more effective than unfractionated heparin (UFH), but equally well tolerated, for the prevention of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) after major surgery for cancer. Objective: To perform a cost-effectiveness analysis of dermatan...

The next century is likely to bring unforeseen genetic and biotechnological discoveries, with new benefits, risks and costs. This paper explores some of the problem areas that healthcare biotechnologies are likely to encounter. Biotechnological interventions may present particular difficulties...

Chickenpox infections are generally mild but due to their very high incidence among healthy children they give rise to considerable morbidity and occasional mortality. With the development of a varicella vaccine in the early 1970s and its progressive licensing in many countries, interest in the...

Objective: There are multiple reasons for missing data in observational studies; excluding patients with missing data can lead to significant bias. In this study, we evaluated several methods for assigning missing values to health service utilisation. Design and setting: Cancer of the Prostate...

Objective: To determine the cost of using systemic therapy to treat newly diagnosed cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis in persons with AIDS. Design: Incidence-based simulation model of CMV treatment from a government payer perspective. Setting: Swiss healthcare system. Patients and participants:...

Treatment of adult chickenpox with aciclovir is controversial because of the relatively high cost of medication and small proven benefits of therapy. A decision-tree model was used to estimate the cost effectiveness of aciclovir, from third-party payer and societal perspectives: the incremental...

Objective: To compare the costs of 2 atypical drug therapies (olanzapine and risperidone) with one another and with a conventional antipsychotic (haloperidol) in the treatment of schizophrenia. Design and setting: The analysis is based on a simulation model with parameter values taken mainly...

An international review of the costs of stroke was conducted to explore data sources, and cost variables as well as to compare estimates of the annual aggregated cost (prevalence-based) and total per patient long-term cost (incidence-based) of care. Dutch, English, French, German, Italian and...

Epidural analgesia and intravenous analgesia with opioids are two techniques for providing pain relief for women in labour. Labour pain is comparable to surgical pain in its severity, and epidural analgesia provides better relief from this pain than intravenous analgesia; a meta-analysis...